Marc by Marc Jacobs showroom by Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects, New York

October 22nd, 2012 by retail design blog

Housed within a full floor of the company’s downtown Manhattan headquarters, this new fashion showroom for Marc by Marc Jacobs signifies a new shift in the brand’s retail identity–which has evolved since the label’s introduction in 2001. The reinvention of the client’s original showroom space interprets the brand’s iconic palette of blue, “Marc Blue” shelving and stainless steel fixtures were designed to reflect the youthful vision of a maturing brand with a global reach.

With offices along the north perimeter and limited exposures to natural light from two small south-facing windows and a large expanse with western exposure, the challenge was to maximize and control the use of daylight in the deep floorplate of this 1907 building, while creating meeting spaces of relative privacy and acoustical control. The design strategy employed a curvilinear glass form as the central element to the space. The glass is imprinted with a gradient frit to create a subtle visual screening.

Throughout the project, opaque display fixtures are arranged laterally to allow maximum penetration of daylight into interior spaces. The gradient frit allows a seated group to have visual privacy and standing individuals to have a command of the space. The shape of the glass enclosure responds to both the program as well as the structural conditions of the original SoHo Cast-iron district building. The structural loads are revealed in the treatment of the stainless steel frame – with the diameters of the structural supports reflecting the local field conditions.